For House District 146: Shawn Nicole Thierry

Thierry impressed as a freshman legislator and deserves a second term in Austin.

Freshman state Rep. Shawn Nicole Thierry, a 47-year-old attorney, showed a lot of promise in her first session of the Texas Legislature last year as she learned the ropes of being a Democratic legislator in a heavily Republican body.

Thierry has learned the importance of the personal touch in legislating – it was her letter to Gov. Greg Abbott that convinced him to include the task force issue in the special session.

District 146 goes east-west from Sunnyside through Meyerland and Westbury out beyond Sharpstown. The 2010 census found it to be 44 percent black, 31 percent Hispanic and 16 percent Anglo.

It was hard hit by Hurricane Harvey, so Thierry is pushing for the state to improve the response to natural disasters, reduce flooding and better protect the victims.

She has two opponents: lawyer Ricardo Soliz and contractor Roy Owens, both political rookies.

Soliz, 56, who is Hispanic, said the district's demographics don't yet favor him to win, but will in four to six years, so this will be his first but not his last run for the office. His primary goal is cleaning up corruption at Harris County courts, which he said he has seen first-hand in his years of legal work.

Owens, 60, said he wants to bring jobs, vocational training and money into a district parts of which he views as awash in crime and beleaguered by poverty. We applaud his desire to help the district residents, but found him a little fast and loose with statistics.

Interestingly, this will be the first time that Thierry has had to face the district's voters. She won it in August 2016 in a 13-11 vote by precinct chairpersons due to a chain of events that followed the sudden death of Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee.

No Republican signed up to run in the general election so this primary might as well decide the seat, and Thierry has earned it.